The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes

Secrets from a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe

By: Kate Strasdin

Narrated by: Karen Cass

Brought to you by Penguin.

The hidden fabric of a Victorian woman's life - from family and friends to industry and Empire - told through her unique textile scrapbook.

In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of her life and times. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes.

Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator. Strasdin spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within the album's pages.

Piece by piece, she charts Anne's journey from the mills of Lancashire to the port of Singapore before tracing her return to England in later years. Fragments of cloth become windows into Victorian life: pirates in Borneo, the complicated etiquette of mourning, poisonous dyes, the British Empire in full swing, rioting over working conditions and the terrible human cost of Britain's cotton industry.

This is life writing that celebrates ordinary people: the hidden figures, the participants in everyday life. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear.

'An extraordinarily rich record of middle-class Victorian life.. [a] fascinating book' Guardian

'Irresistable' The Times

'The story of a singular woman... Kate Strasdin's forensic detective work has finally let Mrs Sykes - and her book - speak again' JUDITH FLANDERS

©2023 Kate Strasdin (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Strasdin's painstaking detective work has uncovered many of the fascinating insights behind the fabric swatches contained in this unusual collection

Snippets of fabric, snippets of biographical detail, snippets of historical evidence - this is a book entirely made up of snippets and I found it irresistible

'[A] questing and poignant social history'

An extraordinarily rich record of middle-class Victorian life, both at home and abroad... [a] fascinating book

This is a wonderful book! The life of a woman, a time and an industry, woven, like cloth, into something unique and beguiling. A treat for the curious reader

Demonstrates beautifully how clothing is woven into the fabric of our lives, our dreams and our histories.

For the imaginative reader, on closing the book, 'the silks still glisten from the paper'

In this engaging book, Strasdin proves triumphantly that the study of fashion is not a frothy sideshow but can provide a textured account of history... [a] compelling account of 19th-century life seen through women's eyes

Thanks to Strasdin's forensic research...this book opens into a vivid history of expansion and empire. And all wrapped up in 2,184 pieces of cloth

Intriguing and engaging... A fascinating and creative unravelling of Anne's life and times (Clare Hunter, author of THREADS OF LIFE)

A fascinating voyage through fashion history

One may think that fashion isn’t important but The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes tells us otherwise. The snips of cloth in her dress diary tell the fascinating story of 19th c industrialization and the people responsible for it.